I'm going to take a shower. I gather my stuff and go into the bathroom, shut the door, and lock it. I set everything down and get into the tub, and close the curtain. I adjust the water to a nice temperature and wet down my hair, then apply shampoo. Now, I have my eyes closed to avoid getting dripping suds in them. As normal, I scrub vigorously, then tilt my head back under the stream of water to rinse. This takes a little time and effort, because I have very long thick hair. Even after rinsing, I can't open my eyes yet, because I'll get water in them. Instead, I reach for the towel I have hanging on the side, and pat the skin around my eyes dry.
I open my eyes to see a horrible, scary face just inches away from me. The head is narrow and angular. The eyes are beady and dark, and seem to be sunken in a bit, as if from severe fatigue. The ears are huge, and the tops are pointy where it would be rounded on most people. The only hair on its head seems to be sticking sideways out of those. Its skin is actually black - not a shade of red-brown, like people's skin, but black like pavement, including where it would have lips, and even his gums. It looks like worn out leather, thick, tough, dry, wrinkled, and a little cracked. The teeth are dark gray. They look like shark's teeth, right down to a second set being visible behind the first. The only other color on it is a really dark reddish tint to the cornea-looking parts of the eyes. It's breath smells like rotting meat. I don't know why I didn't smell it before.
I jump backward against the wall, and water streams down my face and into my eyes. Now, I can't keep them open well, and can barely see. I make out the rest of the creature's body. It - he - is taller than me, and was bending over to get in my face. He stands up straight and towers over me. His body is human shaped, but long and sinewy, like someone stretched a short bodybuilder's muscles over a long frame and just made everything fit, then upholstered it with used leather. His fingers end in long, sharp, talon-like claws.
He sneers at me and reaches for me. I try to get away and get tangled up in the curtain. I feel claws rake down my back, and the burning sensation of water hitting the sliced flesh. I turn back toward him and swing a backhanded smack at him, hitting the side of his face. I knock his head into the side wall, but it doesn't seem to faze him at all. I also notice that his skin feels kind of hot. I notice that steam is coming off of him where the water is hitting him.
He grabs my arm and pulls, slamming me against the back wall of the shower. I can feel his claws digging into my arm, the points breaking the skin and drawing blood. He puts his face up close to mine again, and I feel like my insides are turning to jelly. He hisses at me. That ends in a catlike growl that gets really deep. I struggle against the thing's grip, kicking at its legs and feet, and pushing on its chest with my hands. He snaps his teeth at me. I realize that he's trying to take a bite. This thing wants to eat me, and he doesn't even care whether or not he kills me first.
We fight for several minutes, falling out of the tub and ripping the shower curtain down with us. My only advantage is that I'm slippery because I'm wet, and his skin doesn't produce enough friction to keep a grip on me. The bad thing about that is that he makes up for it by using his claws, and when he can't get a hold on me he slashes at me with them like knives. I am getting really sliced up. There are marks all over my arms, legs, chest, and back. He has even hit me in the face. Even worse, his feet are just like his hands (even having opposable thumbs,) only with longer claws. We've left my blood all over the walls of the shower, on the tub, and on the floor.
In the struggle on the floor outside the tub, he grabs the shower curtain and pulls it over my head. I can see his silhouette through it, but I can't get a good sense of distance. I'm flailing at him but not hitting anything. Suddenly, he drops down and sinks his teeth into my leg, clamps his jaws together, and pulls at me.
The pain from the first bite usually wakes me up. Often, I wake with a muscle spasm happening in the space where I dreamed about getting bitten. Once in a while, there isn't as much pain and the dream continues, with the creature taking chunks of flesh out of my leg as I thrash and kick on the floor. Most of the time, I wake up sore, scared, and covered in sweat.
Sometimes I'm able to get a grip on his face, and I push my thumbs through his eyes. If the fight continues after that, it's more even and I feel like I have a chance to get away from him.
On rare occasions, I figure out that I am dreaming. When that happens, I slip into a "lucid" dream in which I can make anything happen if I focus hard enough. I'm able to fight him off in those dreams, but I usually wake up once I've figured out I'm winning, and then I'm frustrated, because I want to go back and kick his scrawny butt!
When I dream about this monster, which I've nicknamed the Slasher because of the way his claws cut, the dream is usually set in some mundane activity that has all of my skin uncovered and therefore I feel more vulnerable. When its not in the shower, it's in my room. I'm alone in there getting dressed, and the Slasher is there after I pull my pajama shirt off over my face, or he comes up behind me and is there when I turn around. This is a nightmare monster that started showing up when I was a kid.
No comments:
Post a Comment